Have you ever heard of the Chord Chemist?

In part 2 of this special series entitled 4 Great Chord Melody Jazz Guitarists, you’re going to learn about a jazz guitar chord melody player who made a lasting impact on the jazz guitar scene.

Ted Greene is who I’m talking about, who many believe advanced solo jazz guitar to its highest point of development.

Ted was obsessed with chord voicings, and actually wrote a hefty instructional book entitled Chord Chemistry, which is the most comprehensive manual of guitar voicings ever published.

He was relatively unknown to the general public outside of jazz guitar circles, but Ted Greene’s contribution to the understanding of the guitar is profound.

His one and only album, Solo Guitar, recorded in 1977, is considered by many to be one of the most important solo jazz guitar albums ever to be recorded – it’s the duty of any aspiring chord melody player to check this one out.

Ted was an unbelievable musician, as you’ll hear in the examples below.

Ted Greene’s Life & Career

Ted was born in Los Angeles in 1946 but grew up in White Plains, New York. He began his study of guitar at age 11 and was quickly hooked.

Not exclusively being a jazz player, Ted, in fact, played and mastered many styles of music.

As his career matured, he tended to either play solo guitar gigs or accompany vocalists, as he found bands too limiting.

But most of Ted’s focus was that of an educator, writing a comprehensive series of instructional books on guitar harmony, chord melody and single note soloing.

Most of Ted’s day-to-day life was devoted to teaching his many students – there was always a long list of guitarists eagerly waiting for an opening in his jam-packed schedule.

Ted Greene’s Chord Melody Style

I want you to experience Ted Greene’s playing directly, rather than just me talking about it – so here it is!

The following performance of Send In The Clowns is from Ted Greene’s album, Solo Guitar.

This is my favorite track from this album. To be honest, whenever I listen to it I get tears in my eyes. Ted’s music is powerful and very moving.

Solo Guitar Transcription

Rather than just go through a few licks with you in this article, I have something even better.

How cool is this – I found complete transcriptions of Ted Greene’s album, Solo Guitar, free to download online at The Ted Greene Archive (tedgreene.com).

Click here to go to tedgreene.com to access the PDF transcriptions now!

When studying the chord melodies of Ted Greene, it’s best to learn a complete transcription of one of his recordings like this one – it will give you a good overall sense of his techniques and ideas when it came to solo guitar chord melody.

Ted Greene and…Bruce Lee?

Ted Greene is one of those rare musicians that has completely transcended style, and in a utterly non-contrived way.

Listen to the video of Send In The Clowns above and ask yourself: is it jazz? Is it classical? Is it film music? Is it pop or rock?

I think it’s, in fact, none of these – Ted’s style is something entirely new.

Ted’s playing brings to mind the thoughts of Bruce Lee, a philosopher that really inspires me.

(You can probably tell that from the design of this website… :-)

Bruce Lee was critical of martial artists rigidly applying themselves to just one style, as it essentially boxed in a practitioner and put limits on their understanding and ability:

In the context of jazz guitar, I think Ted Greene managed to achieve what Bruce Lee was talking about here.

Ted transcended the limitation of style, and in doing so created his own personal approach.

To use Lee’s words, he added something that was uniquely his own.

A Master of Harmony

I think one reason for Ted Greene’s incredible skill was his supreme knowledge of Western harmony.

Ted was an avid reader of nearly any book of music theory, and was skilled in distilling complex concepts into easy to understand principles for his students – concepts that could, in fact, be applied to any style of Western music – not just jazz.

If you want no better example of his ability to combine and transcend style, check out this video of Ted improvising spontaneously over Autumn Leaves at one of his workshops at the request of a student – combining classical baroque music and jazz!

Intellectual appraisal aside, the thing I really love most about Ted Greene is that his playing is painfully beautiful – it’s like a window into his soul.

After all, his encyclopaedic knowledge of chord voicings wasn’t a means to an end, it was just the foundation upon which he created a unique, personal and wonderfully expressive sound.

There has been no other guitarist quite like Ted Greene and I don’t think there will ever be another like him in the future.

Further Ted Greene Resources

As I mentioned above, Ted only recorded a single album – Solo Guitar (1977) – but this is required listening for anyone interested in chord melody, and particular solo jazz guitar.

It would be worth checking out Ted’s jazz guitar instructional books. They are a complete resource in itself for any jazz student:

• Chord Chemistry
• Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing, Vol. 1
• Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing, Vol. 2
• Modern Chord Progressions: Jazz & Classical Voicings for Guitar

If you’re looking for a great read, check out the book by Ted’s wife Barbara Franklin, entitled My Life With The Chord Chemist: A Memoir of Ted Greene, Apotheosis of Solo Guitar, which recounts Ted’s early life and development as a musician, as well as an insightful narrative of the 13 years prior to his death.

Something I found when I was doing the research for this article was this page on a tribute website, Memories of Ted, with real life stories about Ted Greene by his many guitar students. Reading these stories paints a picture of not only of an extraordinary musician but, most importantly, of Ted’s kind and generous heart.

Finally, check out the resources at tedgreene.com, which has a vast archive of lessons and recordings by Ted.

I hope you enjoyed this exploration into the world of Ted Greene, one of my all-time favorite chord melody guitarists.

Let me know what you think about this article by leaving a comment below!

My New eBook, The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar – Out Now!

That wraps up the second installment of this four-part series on the great jazz guitar chord melody players.

Next week, you’re going to learn about Lenny Breau, one of my own key influences when it comes to chord melody playing.

I’ll see you then!

Greg O’Rourke, BMus (Hons), ANU

In the second half of the 20th century, four of the most exceptional chord melody guitarists emerged on the jazz guitar scene.

In this four-part series of posts, you’re going to learn about these important players lives, their style, and how they each of them made a huge impact on jazz guitar as we know it.

You’re also going to learn classic licks and transcriptions of these players so you can incorporate their ideas into your own playing.

As you’ll discover, chord melody allows for a lot of individual expression and creativity.

Each of these players had a groundbreaking approach to chord melody with a sound totally unique to their own.

Let’s see what’s possible with chord melody guitar, starting with one of my favorite players, Ed Bickert.

Part 1: Ed Bickert

Though he was not well known, I consider Ed Bickert to be one of the trailblazers of jazz guitar.

I’ll go even further to say that Ed Bickert is one of the greatest jazz guitarists the world has ever seen – I think his name deserves as much recognition as Joe Pass or Wes Montgomery.

The reason?

Bickert had very innovative approaches to chords and chord melody playing, as you’ll see in some of the examples below.

Ed Bickert’s Life & Career

Ed Bickert was born in Manitoba, Canada, to a family of farmers. His parents were musical, with his father being a fiddler and his mother a pianist.

Deciding to pursue music instead of farming, Bickert quickly established himself as a success, becoming one of the top jazz and studio guitarists of the scene in Toronto in the 60s.

But Bickert’s real lucky break came when he was introduced to Paul Desmond by Jim Hall, (Ed and Jim were friends), which led to several collaborations between Desmond and Bickert.

Bickert continued to play until the early 2000s, when he then retired.

Unlike other jazz masters, Bickert quietly pursued his art and didn’t overtly seek fame or success.

I think this is one of the reasons why Bickert developed such a uniquely personal style, as genuine as it is groundbreaking.

Now, let’s check out some of his playing.

Ed Bickert’s Style – Smooth As Silk

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

But a video is worth a million.

So, check out this video of Bickert playing in a trio of the classic jazz standard Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me as a fine example of his silky smooth style:

(By the way, if you want to learn Ed Bickert’s solo off this track, click here for a closeup video walkthrough I found on Youtube and click here for a video of the notated transcription)

If I was only allowed to choose one player to emulate in a trio setting it would be Ed Bickert – laid back yet refined, I could listen to him all day long.

As Bickert plays a solo he often interchanges between single line, chord stabs and full chord soloing, skilfully creating interest and variety as you can hear in the video above.

What I love most about Bickert’s playing is his unique approach to chord voicings: easy on the hands, but very sophisticated.

Bickert was the master of implying harmony with chords.

His chords give the impression to the listener of many more notes being played in the voicings than what is actually there.

For jazz guitar, it’s usually only practical to play three or four note chords, so you need to make sure you get the most ‘bang-for-your-buck’ out of the chord tones for each shape you hold down.

Bickert’s voicings live on the upper structures of the harmony: he rarely plays the root or 5th in his chords and often uses quartal approaches.

Here’s the thing:

If you try to play Bickert’s voicings unaccompanied, they can often seem quite dissonant and unrelated to the given harmony.

But, in the context of a trio, they blend in beautifully – giving a warm, listenable, and attention grabbing sound to your comping and chord solos.

3 Ed Bickert Licks

No more armchair jazz guitar! It’s time for you to get to work now.

Get started by learning the following 3 licks in the style of Ed Bickert, which are strong examples of his key ideas.

Ed Bickert Lick 1

Listen & Play:

This first lick, based on a I – vi – ii – V turnaround, features colorful chord voicings at every turn.

Notice the skillful ‘smooth as silk’ voice leading that Bickert employs in this lick as he moves from chord to chord.

Also noteworthy is that all the chords in this lick are rootless voicings.

The reason?

If you’re playing in a trio, the bass player is usually playing the root notes, freeing you up to play more colorful tones on top.

Whilst this lick might sound a bit strange unaccompanied, try it along with the recording and it will make sense.

Ed Bickert Lick 2

Listen & Play:

In this lick, Bickert employs open strings to great effect.

Bickert liked using chord clusters, i.e groups of notes very close together. Employing open strings results in a chord cluster which can be otherwise be too tricky to play on guitar.

Again you’ll see the use of entirely rootless voicings, with Bickert playing exclusively in the upper structures of the harmony.

Also, notice that deliciously smooth voice leading that Ed Bickert is renowned for.

Ed Bickert Lick 3

Listen & Play:

I love this one.

The first chord is a sub of the iim7 chord, becoming a V/V7.

There’s also lots of chords in this lick with a b13 tension, giving it a really hip sound.

As this lick finishes on a I7 chord in the harmony, it’s a good one to use for a jazz blues progression.

Great Recordings of Ed Bickert

This list isn’t exhaustive, but is a good place to start checking out Ed Bickert’s playing at his finest:

• Paul Desmond & Ed Bickert – Pure Desmond (1974)
• Paul Desmond Quartet Live (1975 )
• Out of The Past (1976)
• Ed Bickert with Don Thompson: At the Garden Party (1979)

Conclusion

Despite being the musical equivalent of a ‘hidden yogi’, Ed Bickert is a master musician and essential study for any serious chord melody jazz guitarist.

His chord voicings are sophisticated yet easy to apply, which will give you a dynamic sound in your chord melodies and will help break you away from the more stock standard drop 2 and drop 3 chord voicings.

I encourage you to find out more about this fabulous player, one who should be more well known to jazz guitarists everywhere.

My New eBook, The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar – Out Now!

I’m pleased to announce that Matt Warnock of Jazz Guitar Online and myself have spent this year co-writing a comprehensive guide on arranging chord melodies and how to master the art of chord soloing, entitled The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar.

This brand new eBook is a complete
A-Z guide on creating your own great sounding chord melody arrangements for trio and solo guitar situations, and you’ll also learn how to chord solo (i.e., improvise with chords) like a pro.

We’ve heavily referenced Ed Bickert throughout this book, so check it out if you’re keen to learn more about this genius of jazz guitar.

To find out more about the book and to get your copy, click here>>

I hope today’s post has inspired you to learn more about Ed Bickert. Let me know what you think about this article by leaving a comment below.

In the next installment of this 4 part series, you’re going to learn about a guitarist known as the ‘Chord Chemist’. Do you know who it is?

Keep a lookout for the upcoming post to find out!

Greg O’Rourke, BMus (Hons), ANU

Conclusion

I hope this article has inspired you to get into chord melody guitar if you haven’t already done so.

When I started focusing on chord melody techniques, not only did my own playing get a whole lot more interesting, but overall it made me a much better jazz guitarist too.

Over to you – what are the best tips that YOU have for learning chord melody? Or, if you’re just starting out – what do you struggle with the most when it comes to learning chord melody techniques?

Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below; I would love to hear from you!

Greg O’Rourke, BMus (Hons), ANU

Founder, FretDojo.com